anyone lived in a pretty how town (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: e. e. cummings
- First Published: 1940
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Children, Love or romance, Human behavior, Life, philosophy of, Life and death, Cities or towns, Bells
“Anyone lived in a pretty how town” is a poem in which Cummings's wordplay is especially effective. The poem contrasts “anyone” and “noone” with “someones and everyones,” the first pair being the hero and heroine who love each other, the second pair being the anonymous mass of nonbeings who live lives of quiet desperation, as another New Englander, Henry David Thoreau, once lamented. Eventually “anyone” and “noone” die, but their lives have been meaningful and enriching; the rest of the townspeople—the “someones and everyones”—continue to live, though...
[The entire page is 589 words long]
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